1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of data transmission between a transmitter and a receiver. More precisely, the invention relates to all communication systems requiring high data transmission quality, and is of special interest for communication systems subject to real time constraints.
In particular, but not exclusively, the invention is applied to ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request) type transmission protocols, which implement error-checking functions within communication systems. Such ARQ protocols define a set of data transmission rules, structured in successive frames, as packets.
2. Related Background Art
Many error-checking techniques are generally used in communication systems to compensate for loss and/or degradation of data transmitted from a source point to a destination point. Conventionally, the error checking implements transmission error detection and retransmission of lost or degraded data. According to a known data retransmission technique, the transmitter waits until it has received an explicit discard message from the receiver for data lost or degraded during transmission, in the form of a feedback message, then retransmits as soon as possible the data unacknowledged by the receiver.